What Cause Forthy Urine and Puffy Eyes and Faces in Diabetes

Q: My brother has diabetes for 14 years and He is 53 years old now. As of now he don't have any kind of swelling but before starting the dialysis, he had the problem of puff in Face and legs, specially in leg while traveling(even if traveling just for 5 hours). He has cough problem now a days and the its dried cough (means nothing comes out but just cough). Doctor suggests it might be due to the some water he has in heart/lungs. But he has forthy urine. Some foam appears in his urine. Can you tell me why his eyes and face puffy and urine foamy?

A: thank you for your inquiry. For the information you give me, I think your brother suffer from not only Diabetes, but his kidneys are affects. In clinic, we called Diabetic Nephropathy.

It is the most common symptom for the DN patients to have foams in urine, because glomerular becomes necrosis and sclerosis, thus resulting in increased glomerular permeability. As a result, the proteins in blood will leak into urine through glomeruli. The main function of glomeruli is like a filter, the nutrition substances are abstracted from the blood, and the waste product is discharge into the initial urine. Most of the protein should be maintained in the human body, only a little protein should be discharged into urine.

However, as your glomeruli get damaged,especially the bore diameters as they are bigger which lead to a lot of protein be leaked into the initial urine. What's more when there is large quantity of the protein in urine, it will cause the edema. That is why your father had swelling in his face and legs.

That is not a good sign for him if his doctor was right, as he said there is some water in his heart and lungs, you know for his condition, the water is easy to store in his body, the worst situation is store in heart as it is dangerous.

This is just a simple analysis. If it is helpful, you can email to kidneyservice@hotmail.com about your brother’s detailed information. And we are glad to offer specific suggestions for him.